Understanding innovation ecosystems as organizations

Innovation ecosystems have emerged as one of the most powerful organizing forms of contemporary innovation, yet their organizational nature remains theoretically and empirically underexplored. This book integrates perspectives from organizational theory, design research, and complex systems theory to investigate how innovation ecosystems function as complex adaptive organizations. Through a design-based conceptual synthesis, it identifies and interrelates seven core organizational dimensions—structure, control mechanisms, processes, roles, internationalization, leadership, and cross-dimensional interactions—that together shape the organizational dynamics of ecosystems. The analysis demonstrates that coherence within ecosystems does not stem from hierarchy or centralized control but from recursive feedback loops that generate adaptive coherence: the system’s ability to sustain alignment amid continual transformation. Control becomes distributed across technological infrastructures and social norms; leadership emerges through sensemaking and legitimacy rather than authority; and structure evolves through modular and polycentric configurations that balance stability and emergence. The book contributes to organizational theory by reframing innovation ecosystems as intentional, evolving organizational systems, extending classic concepts of coordination, governance, and design beyond firm boundaries. It enriches the ecosystem literature by introducing a systemic framework that connects micro-level interaction processes with macro-level institutional logics, offering a coherent model of how collective innovation is organized and sustained over time. Practically, the framework provides guidance for ecosystem orchestrators, managers, and policy makers seeking to design adaptive architectures that enable autonomy without fragmentation and coherence without hierarchy. By conceptualizing innovation ecosystems as organizational laboratories where coordination, legitimacy, and leadership are continuously reinvented, the book positions them as the next frontier in the evolution of organization itself.